EvenSteven's 3x3 Indoor LED Soil Grow

[Evensteven18]

What strain is it? Unknown, bag seeds. From good genetics though.
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? Unknown
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Veg
If in Veg... For how long? 5 days
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Soil
If soil... what is in your mix? Fox Farm Ocean Forest
If soil... What size pot? 7 gallon
Size of light? 600w LED
Is it aircooled? Yes
Temp of Room/cab? 72-75
RH of Room/cab? 40-45
PH of media or res? Unknown
Any Pests ? No
How often are you watering? When they need it, usually every other day.
Type and strength of ferts used? None yet

I have a limited amount of space to work with in my house so I had to go with a 3x3 tent. It is about 6 feet tall. I have a 600w LED. I ran a 600w hps when I first set the tent up and the HPS was too hot so I got an LED which the plants are loving. I didn't have money or space to properly extradite the heat so the LED really saved my ass considering it's hardly warm to the touch. Currently running a 20/4 light cycle.

For ventilation, I have two clip fans blowing on the plants ( planning on getting two more for full 360 air movement ). I have a box fan blowing cold air from my house AC into the bottom of the tent and a fan sucking out the hot air from the top. The room's temperature and humidity are perfect.

I have not started giving them any nutrients yet as I'm waiting to hear from some of you about when I should start feeding them and what kind of nutrients should I use? I don't want to use a lot of heavy nutrients, I would prefer something nice and subtle that has no risk of burning them or anything.

They are planted in 7 gallon smart pots in pure fox farm ocean forest soil.

I have set up a SCRoG net for the plants to grow into. IS TOPPING WORTH IT IN MY SMALL SPACE? I would really like some input. The 2nd netting is mainly for structural support and to continue the SCRoG as I am going to be growing the plants as tall as I can get them.

I plan on adding 3 additional LED lights to the 3 lower sides of the tent so the lower branches will all have access to light.
Pictures are attached to the thread, sorry for bad quality. I will update eventually with pictures when the light is off.

 

[Evensteven18]

 

[ConstantGreen]

Hey man, looking good so far! Your setup is almost identical to mine. I totally understand not having space to cool a HPS in that tent... an LED is almost the only way to go.

I called up Fox Farm with the same question as you and they told me Happy Frog has enough nutrients in the soil for 2-3 weeks, then you want to start feeding. I'd assume Ocean Forest is the same. My plants under the LED started to show deficiencies at 2 weeks so I'd start feeding then.

I'm using Advanced Nutrients - Iguana Juice and General Hydroponics - Calmag for my nutes. They're both organic, which I've learned are less likely to burn your plants. The Iguana Juice is a pretty mild concentration, the person who recommended it to me feeds at double the highest recommendation on the bottle and hasn't had nute burn. But my plants seem happy enough just at regular strength.

And IME topping worked well. It added probably a week onto my veg time, but it really catalyzed the bushing out of the side branches. I also tied down (LST) the new tops to further increase side branching. You could do both or just LST without topping and it will still branch out. Looks like yours are a little too young to bend over though.

 

[Evensteven18]

Thanks Versai for the input. If I LST the plants by bending will that give me as much bushy growth as if I were to top it?

 

[ConstantGreen]

I can't say it will for sure because I've only grown this once and did both to mine. But everything I read says it's basically the same thing, just topping will stunt the growth for a bit as it's higher stress than bending. For LST, when the tallest tip is bent below the others, it tricks the plant into thinking it was cut. So it redirects hormones from that branch into the others until a new leader is established. With your scrog net you'll be constantly re-directing the tallest branches down to keep the canopy even.

If you wanna checkout my grow for reference, link is in my sig. I have twice as many plants in the same space, but still topped them. I was freaking out a bit trying to make these decisions too but I think it's a lot more flexible than I originally thought. Just gotta be patient and follow your intuition. Personally, I would top yours just to get the experience of how to top plants and seeing how it works. You have plenty of space and nothing to lose.

 

[Evensteven18]

Update 8/18: Noticed some weird spots on all 4 plants leaves. Checked underneath them and sure enough there were spider mites munching away. Nuked em with some isopropyl alcohol, water, lemon juice, and dish soap solution. The plants are small so I was sure to get every last spot on the leaves. I also put the solution on my fingertips and rubbed the bottom of the leaves with it. That should've taken care of them but I'm on my way to the store right now to get some neem oil to apply weekly and mix in with their water. Does anybody have any tips when it comes to preventing this from happening again?

 

[ConstantGreen]

One tip I heard is never directly enter your grow area after being outside.

There's also predatory mites that work best if you bring them in before other pests show up, and they'll defend the crop. I've also seen a video of a ladybug munching on a spider mite.

Also heard spider mites don't like to setup camp in windy areas, so a lot of fans and airflow might deter them from settling in.

 

[Evensteven18]

Thanks Versai I appreciate all of your input as this is my first ever indoor grow. I gave the plants a good spraying of neem oil before I turned the light off. I was happy to inspect my plants as I turned my light back on and there doesn't look to be anymore mites. My plants are looking healthy again and I will be applying neem every week now just to be sure. The pics are of the plants now spider mite free

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.